Bastien et Bastienne (Bastien and Bastienne)

by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791).
Singspiel in one act. 1768.
Libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Weiskern and Johann Müller, with revision by Johann Andreas Schachtner, after Les amours de Bastien et Bastienne (The Loves of Bastien and Bastienne) by Marie-Justine-Benoîte Favart and Harny de Guerville.
First performance at the house of F. A. Mesmer in Vienna in September and October 1768.

CHARACTERS

Bastien, tenor
Bastienne, soprano
Colas, a magician, bass

Bastienne, taking the advice of the magician Colas, wins back the heart of Bastien, whose amorous intentions have wandered.

Mozart's Singspiel, written when he was twelve, makes use of a text familiar in Vienna for some years, based on a parody of Rousseau's Le devin du village (The Village Soothsayer). Like that work, it reflects, dramatically and musically, pastoral innocence, suited well enough to the little theatre in Mesmer's Vienna garden, where the work was first performed.